How to Get Free Internet Hotspot from your Android Phone

Okay, all of you cheapskates out there(myself included ha ha) will love me for this one if you have an Android phone and your carrier charges you extra to use a hotspot with your laptop of PC. In my case, I have a T-Mobile Android, Prism II cell phone. I have the $30/month plan that has unlimited data and text, but only 100 minutes of call time. I'll also give you a hint on how to get around that later.

Why Pay for Internet When You Already Have it?

If you have a cell phone with internet service and you are considering getting home internet service with WiFi or without, think again! You already have a potential mobile hotspot on your phone! You can use your phone's hotspot to connect any laptop or PC in your home, or anywhere your phone is, to the internet using the phones built-in internet.

How to Use your Phone's Hotspot for Free

This is the semi-tricky part, using your hotspot without paying extra for it. If you fork out the extra $15 per month or whatever it is for your phone company, you can get it easy and hassle free, sure, but this work around is pretty easy and hassle free as well and won't cost you a dime. Here is how:

On your Android phone, go to Google Play Store or whatever app store you use and search for "PDA Net". Then download and install the PDA Net app for Android.

Now go back to the app store and search for "FoxFi" hotspot and download the FoxFi hotspot and tethering app for android. Install it as well.

Go into your phone's settings under Settings/All/Mobile Networks/More.../Data Usage and turn "Mobile data" ON. You should also go to Settings/Mobile Networks and make sure "Data enabled" is checked.

Open up FoxFi and place a check mark after "Activate USB Mode" under the PDA Net settings.

Download PDA Net for the computers you want to use internet on and install it. If you haven't figured this out from doing the above steps yet, just Google "PDA Net for PC download" or something similar and you will find it easy enough.

Once everything is installed, tether your phone and PC together with the Phone's USB connector and you can now open up a browser on your PC and enjoy your new free internet connection.

Pros:

This service is often a lot faster than broad band and often close to as fast as cable internet if you have good 4g service or at least 3g service in your area. If you have T-Mobile's "Unlimited Internet" service, it is only unlimited with 2g, they will cap you off and lock you into 2g mode after you use 5GB of data with 4g or 3g running. It will work in 2g mode, it is just really slow.

Cons:

You do have to use a tether with this method. If anyone knows how to make the hotspot work without tethering and without paying the extra $15 for hotspot service, please post a comment.